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It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens
Summary In [http://www.danah.org/itscomplicated/ ''It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens'']'' ''[http://www.danah.org/ Danah Boyd] explores tropes about identity, privacy, safety, danger, and bullying. Ultimately, Boyd argues that society fails young people when paternalism and protectionism hinder teenagers’ ability to become informed, thoughtful, and engaged citizens through their online interactions.http://www.danah.org/itscomplicated/ '''Chapters''' '''Chapter one''': Boyd discusses how teens create their identity through the internet. '''Chapter two:''' Adults believe teens are too open about their lives on the internet but, in actuality, Boyd argues they are quite private. '''Chapter three:''' Boyd clues her audience into why teens are addicted to the internet. '''Chapter four:''' Boyd addresses if the internet is really a dangerous place for teens. '''Chapter five:''' The issue of if the internet increases bullying amoung teenagers. '''Chapter six''': How the internet addresses the issue of race. '''Chapter seven:''' Boyd disscusses if today's youth are truly digital natives. '''Chapter eight:''' Boyd argues how teens are trying to create a space of their own. [For those in need of the book, here is the [http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf .pdf]] Quotes "Social network sites changed the essence of online communities." pg 7 "Networked publics are publics both in the spatial sense and in the sense of an imagined community." pg 9 "Teens are looking for a place of their own to make sense of the world beyond their own bedrooms. Social media has enabled them to participate in and help create... networked publics." pg 10 "Reality is nuanced and messy, full of pros and cons. Living in a networked world is complicated." pg 16 "Increasing regulation means that there aren't as many public spaces for teens to gather. The mall, once one of the main hubs for suburban teens, is much less accessible now than it once was." pg 21 "Social media is actively shaping and being shaped by contemporary society, so it behooves us to move beyond punditry and scare tactics to understand what social media is and how it fits into the social lives of youth." pg 27 "When teens interact with social media, they must regularly contend with collapsed context and invisible audiences..." pg 31 "The Imagined audience defines the social context." pg 32 "When teens face collapsing contexts in physical environments, their natural response is to become quiet." pg 33 "Their [teens] seemingly distinct practices on each platform might suggest that they are trying to be different people" pg 38 "The context of particular site is not determined by the technical features of that site but, rather, by the interplay between teens and the site." pg 39 "Social media has introduced a new dimension to the well-worn fights over private space and personal expression." pg 54 "Many teens feel as though they are in a no-win situation when it comes to sharing information online." Pg 54 "There's a big difference between being ''in ''public and ''being ''public." pg 57 "Today's teens aren't spending hours on land-lines but they are still conversating." pg 79 "Social Media has become an outlet for many youth, an opportunity to reclaim some sense of agency and have some semblance of social power. It has provided a window into society and an outlet for hanging out that these teens didn't even know they had lost." pg 98 "Moral panics and the responses to them reconfigure the lives of youth in restrictive ways, more than any piece of legislation could possibly achieve. Legal scholar Larry Lessig argues that four forces regulate social systems: market, law, social norms and technology or architecture. Fear is often use in service to these forces....Given the cultural work done in the name of fear, it's astounding that young people have as much freedom as they do." pg 106 "The presence of unhealthy offline relationships may thus increase the risk of internet-based sexual victimization." pg 124 "parents as a whole often use fear to keep youth from engaging in practices that adulttsSer as dangerous." Pg. 125 "The dynamics of drama and attention don't unfold because of social media, even if teens can use technology for these purposes. They are not innate properties of being a teenager. Teenagers learn to engage in acts of drama just as they learn different tactics for acquiring attention from others. One of the ways that they develop these sensibilities is through celebrity culture and the dramas between public figures that they watch unfold as part of contemporary entertainment." pg 147 " Social media has not radically altered the dynamics of bullying but it has made those dynamics more visible to more people." pg 152 "By increasing the visibility of individuals and their actions, social media doesn't simply shine on the problematic action; it enables people to identify and harass others in a very public way. This, in turn, reinforces social divisions that plague American society." pg 163 "When I asked about racial division in more privileged schools to in schools situated in progressive communities, I regularly heard the postracial society mantra, with teens initially telling me that race did not matter in friend groups at their school. And then we’d log in to their Facebook or MySpace page and I would find clues that their schools were quite segregated. For example, I’d find that friend networks within diverse schools would be divided by race. When I’d ask teens to explain this, they’d tell me the divisions I was seeing were because of who was in what classes or who plated what sports, not realizing that racial segregation played a role in those aspects of school life, too." pg 164 [About MySpace's glitch about being able to change profile aspects] "Excited by the ability to create "layouts" and "backgrounds," teens started learning enough code to modify their profiles. Some teens became quite sophisticated technically as they sought to build extensive, creative profiles. Others simply copied and pasted code they found online. But this technical glitch-combined with teens' passion for personalizing their MySpace profiles-ended up creating an opportunity for teens to develop some technical competency." pg 182 "Many of the teens that I met...craved the freedoms that Emily had. They were desperate for the opportunity to leave their homes to gather with friends. Although not universal, most could attend school functions. Some could get together with friends in public venues on weekends. Yet over and over again and across the country, teens complained to me that they never had enough time, freedom, or ability to meet up with friends when ad where they wanted. To make up for this, they turned to social media to create and inhabit networked places." pg 201 "When teens turn to networked publics, they do so to hang out with friends and be recognized by peers." pg 203 Think About It How old were you when you received your first cell phone? If you don't own a cell phone why is that? How old were you when you received your first smart phone? What was your first type (flip phone, black berry, etc.) of cell phone? Do you see a difference in what was your type of first phone and what type of first phone a child today might have? Why do you think smartphones have become so popular within society? Do you think that this is a reflection of how we exercise our ability to place a 'value' on things? Do you own a laptop, tablet or other mobile device? What are the common uses for your laptop or tablet? What social networking sites are you a member of? How many social networking sites do you use and what do you use them for? Which social networking sites do you interact with daily? How much time do you spend engaged on social network sites? On average, how much time do you spend on your phone per day? For purposes other than calling? How much time do you spend on the internet talking to friends per day? Is there certain friends that you only communicate with via certain networks on a specific site? [Example: You might only text your mom or only instant Facebook message your friend.] Whom do you talk to when you are texting, blogging or on social media sites? Could you go a day without social media, if so, which ones? Which ones could you not? How do you handle not being able to use your phone if it is broken or unavailable? Will you go back home if you're out and your phone runs out of batteries? Does social media affect your daily activities? If so, how? How have social media platforms such as Yik Yak affected the ways that bullying occurs online? Do do you think it is Facebook's responsibility to monitor and respond to online bullying? What role, if any, should K-12 schools take when addressing online bullying? Why do you think people are more prone to bully others online? How old were you when you signed up for your first social media website? What was it? Did your parents keep you from signing-up for a social media website until you were a certain age? How old were you when you first encountered chat rooms? Were there rules to using the internet in your household? If so, did they benefit or did they hinder your presence on new media? How does visibility affect the content you decide to share on social media platforms? Are any of your friends on Facebook unable to see your status updates? If so, how and why did you chose those specific people? Do you think a lot about what you are writing before you post it? How do you filter yourself? Central Themes In chapters three and four, Boyd focuses on the issue of parental monitoring of teens' internet use. A major concern that she brings up is that parents either seem to care too much or not enough and are on the verge of a sort of technofear and paranoia. The question then is, is there a happy medium, and if so what would it look like? Ideally, the internet should be a public space where teens are able to congregate and which enables them to communicate with people of all different ethnicities, gender identities, orientations, and beliefs. Boyd really dwells on this concept, because, as she notes, the internet is an escape mechanism where teens turn to find their position, role, and understanding of society. Boyd also notes how people aren't using social media to become different people. Rather by using multiple sites they are representing different aspects of their identity. This is also complicated by only posting certain things on Facebook when a person has their parents as friends versus other websites where this may not be the case. Identity Development One idea expressed within the work addresses how teenagers are using social media to express different facets of themselves. This video by PBS to the bottom right discusses the concept of identity and Facebook's effect on identity development. Conclusion